The CMA Remicade decision: discount schemes and abuse of dominance – effects matter!*
Summary
On 14 March 2019, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided to close its investigation into a discount scheme by Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited (MSD). The CMA concluded that there were (...)

EU Court confirms the need for transparency and full disclosure of economic analyses in EU merger cases (UPS/TNT)*
On 16 January 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU” or “Court”) dismissed the European Commission’s appeal against the annulment of its decision to prohibit the (...)

I. Introduction
In the last couple of years, there has been a trend for antitrust watchdogs around the world to investigate excessive pricing, especially in the phar- maceutical sector. Last year, the European Commission opened its first investigation into excessive pricing in the (...)

On 6 September 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU" or "Court") essentially held in Intel that the European Commission ("Commission") cannot consider rebates, and in particular loyalty rebates, as per se illegal. Rather, the Commission needs to show that a specific rebates (...)

Background
On 15 June 2012, the global specialist transport and logistics provider United Parcel Services (“UPS”) notified the European Commission of its proposed acquisition of TNT Express NV (“TNT”) under the EU Merger Regulation. UPS and TNT are both active on international express small (...)

Introduction
On 10 March 2016, the European Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling annulling European Commission decisions requesting information from cement manufacturers, on the ground that the decisions did not sufficiently explain why the information requested was necessary . This (...)

185 Ian S. Forrester | A Scot without Borders - Liber Amicorum - Volume II Patent settlements as by object restrictions : a European approach, but is it the right one? JAMES K ILLICK * I. Introduction It is a great pleasure to participate in this book to celebrate Ian’s long and varied legal (...)

The entry into force of the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 (the “CRA”) on 1 October 2015 marks the introduction of opt-out class actions in the UK, further transforming the legal landscape for private damages claims in the UK.
Together with further changes as a result of the UK’s implementation of (...)

In this roundtable, speakers discuss the challenges and opportunities that the standard setting organizations and processes represent for competition and innovation. First, Josef Drexl’s introductory remarks focus on defining the scope of the roundtable. In the second contribution, Jorge Padilla (...)

Standards lie at the heart of the digital economy – without standards, we would not have smartphones, tablets and other key parts of modern life. Europe’s highest court recently delivered a judgment in Huawei v. ZTE explaining when EU competition law will prevent holders of patents that are (...)

On 26 March 2015, the European Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, announced a potential competition inquiry in the e-commerce sector. According to the Commission, the proposed inquiry is aimed at identifying and resolving cross-border barriers to e-commerce in (...)

The interaction between competition rules and intellectual property («IP») rights has long been among the most interesting, controversial and widely discussed issues in competition law. At a first glance, the objectives of IP law and competition rules might seem to be at odds with each other. On (...)

On 5 March 2015, the European Court of Justice (CoJ) handed down its judgment in Versalis , concerning the increasing of fines for antitrust infringements where a company is found to be a repeat offender. The judgment raises important questions about the respect for the rights of defence in EU (...)

The interaction between competition rules and intellectual property (“IP”) rights continues to be the source of lively debates in Brussels and other capitals across the globe. IP lawyers lament that competition lawyers do not understand IP rules and that competition intervention undermines the (...)

DG Competition of the European Commission just published its 5th patent monitoring report. It covers patent settlements entered into in 2013. Each year, the Commission claims that the report shows a “steady increase” of patent settlements in general, which supposedly would prove that the (...)

Summary
The Advocate General’s advisory Opinion in the Huawei v. ZTE FRAND Case (C-170/13) would, if followed by the full European Court of Justice (ECJ), usher in a significant shift in the playing field in German litigation on Standard essential patents (SEPs). Germany has been known as a (...)

Introduction
On 11 September 2014, the Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered its judgment in the Cartes Bancaires case . The ECJ quashed the General Court (GC) judgment for failing to correctly apply the notion of restriction by object. The Cartes Bancaires contains two key messages: first, the (...)

The European Commission (“EC”) has long sought to eliminate so-called harmful tax competition, which it sees as undermining the integrity of the internal market, fair competition and the fiscal sustainability of the Member States. Although the EU Member States remain sovereign in this area, over (...)

On 9 April 2014, the European Commission adopted its new Energy and Environmental State Aid Guidelines (the “EEAG”) which will take effect from 1 July 2014 onwards, replacing the Environmental State aid Guidelines (“EAG”) from 2008, which did not cover State aid to the energy sector. The EEAG set (...)

MOFCOM Shows Teeth Against Gun Jumping* Summary On 20 March 2014, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) issued a notice announcing that it will make public decisions sanctioning companies failing to notify mergers that meet the filing thresholds. The notice further (...)

Executive Summary
On 9 December 2013, DG Comp published its fourth report on the monitoring in Europe of patent settlements. Like its predecessors, the report welcomes the continuously low level of settlements that may give rise to antitrust concerns and trumpets that the overall number of (...)

On 11 June 2013, the European Commission ("Commission") adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can bring damages claims under EU antitrust rules. According to the Commission, the proposal serves to remove a number of practical difficulties which claimants face when (...)

By its decision of 18 April 2007, the Commission imposed fines totalling approximately EUR 270 million on several Dutch brewers, including Heineken NV and its subsidiary Heineken Nederland BV, and Bavaria NV, for their participation in a cartel on the Dutch beer market between 27 February 1996 (...)

By its decision of 3 May 2006, the Commission imposed fines totalling over EUR 388 million on a number of companies for their participation in a cartel on the market for hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate (bleaching agents) between 31 January 1994 and 31 December 2000. Among the companies (...)

By its decision of 11 March 2008, the Commission imposed fines totalling over EUR 32 million on ten companies for their participation in a cartel on the international removal services market in Belgium between October 1984 and September 2003. In particular, the Commission imposed fines of EUR (...)

Today, the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") launched a review of barriers to entry, expansion and exit in retail banking.[1] The review comes at a time of when the UK Government has significant stakes in a number of major retail banks, which it will wish to divest over time. The purpose of the (...)

On 8 July 2009, the European Commission’s released its long-awaited Final Report on its Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry. The Final Report suggests that the shortcomings of the regulatory framework are a key explanatory factor for delayed generic entry and limited innovation. Meanwhile the Final (...)

What does the Commission’s recent Communication on enforcement of Article 82 EC mean for companies ? Does it make enforcement more predictable ? Does the greater use of economic concepts reduce the risk that intense competition on the merits by the part of a dominant firm will be considered (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in the (...)

For the third time this year, and the second time this week, the European Court of First Instance ("CFI") has overturned a decision of the EC Commission to block a merger. Once again, the CFI criticized the Commission’s factual findings and its analysis.
Within hours of the judgment, (...)

In a critical decision, the European Court of First Instance (“CFI”) reversed the decision of the EC Commission, which had blocked AirTours’ acquisition of First Choice, a rival UK tour operator, under Article 2(3) of the EC Merger Control Regulation on the basis that it would have created a (...)

This article analyses the three major recent cases dealing with the boundary between EC competition law and intellectual property rights: the Commission’s interim measures decision in the IMS case, the European Court of Justice’s later judgment in IMS and, finally, the Commission’s decision in the (...)